Melbourne education tech startup Pivot announced recently that it has raised $1.4 million from the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle and technology firm DiUS, with the particiaption also from LaunchVic’s women-led investment program the Alice Anderson Fund.

According to the Pivot, the fresh capital will be used to revamp its feedback platform designed to improve teaching outcomes in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia,  as well as to re-platform the company’s survey-based technology and launch a new suite of student and teacher wellbeing tools.

Founded in 2014 by Caitlin Macleod, Cleo Westhorpe and Belinda Harries, Pivot asks students to complete a short 25-question survey about their educators’ teaching style, which is turned into anonymised data before it is sent to the educators.  

To help teachers implement the feedback, Pivot provides resources for goal-setting and professional development tools. The platform also provides school leaders with a fast, evidence-based and actionable way to improve student engagement, teaching quality and overall school performance. 

Currently, the startup claims that more than 50,000 teachers and 1,500 schools have used Pivot for its data insights across Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.

“We’ve had a terrific start to the year with hundreds of schools across Australia and internationally using Pivot’s leading data-driven approach to improve teaching practice and student and teacher wellbeing,” Pivot CEO Tim Watts said.